Shooting: Day four preview

As the Rio 2016 Paralympics shooting competition reaches the halfway point, crowds will welcome back 31 pistol shooters to the range.

The sole event for Sunday (11 September) will showcase five women and 26 men representing a total of 19 different countries all aiming for the coveted P3 (mixed 25m pistol SH1) gold medal.

Current Paralympic champion Jianfei Li of China will be looking to follow in the footsteps of teammate Chao Dong, who successfully defended his R1 (men’s 10m air rifle SH1) title earlier this week.

The USA’s Michael Tagliapietra has a great chance to become the first American to qualify for a shooting final in Rio. Tagliapietra is ranked number five in the world and was the gold medalist at the 2015 Sydney World Cup.

Swedish shooter Joackim Norberg is the reigning world champion and will be looking to live up to his nickname ‘the hot shot’ when he takes to the firing line. Norberg showed his strength in the pistol events, claiming the P3 and P5 (mixed 10m air pistol standard SH1) world titles in 2014 in Suhl, Germany.

After missing out on the finals for P1 (men’s 10m air pistol SH1), Ukraine’s Oleksii Denysiuk will be keen to impress. Denysiuk swept onto the pistol scene two years ago and has collected a number of medals at international competition, including P3 gold at the Bangkok World Cup earlier this year.

Turkey’s Korhan Yamac took silver behind Denysiuk in Bangkok, and has been a mainstay on the P3 podium.

Debora Campos and Geraldo Von Rosenthal will fly the flag for Brazil. Both shooters are Paralympic debutants and will be hoping to deliver some delight for the home crowd.